Rabbit, Run John Updike [xrrgroup][xrr rating=1.45/5] [xrr rating=1.1/5 imageset=grenade label=Manliness:][/xrrgroup] The literary tastes of the men in iUMBC range from dudes who will only read a book all the way through if there is a steady barrage of explosions, shootings, and space aliens to dudes who were English majors and read books seeking […]

[xrrgroup][xrr rating=5/5] [xrr rating=5/5 imageset=grenade label=Manliness:][/xrrgroup] Fact: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is the best book ever written for young men. Okay, that is probably debatable. You could still make strong cases for Tom Sawyer, The Outsiders or Hatchet, but the fact that it is even in the […]

[xrrgroup][xrr rating=4.25/5] [xrr rating=4.25/5 imageset=grenade label=Manliness:][/xrrgroup] You may be surprised to hear this, A Hero Of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov is a Russian classic that is under 200 pages! making it an accessible introduction to the wonderful world of Russian literature (Sometimes I feel like I am an addict trying to peddle my drug […]

Quick story on how awesome my wife and I are. We just took a weekend getaway to Branson. During the off season. On Sunday night. Even cooler, we listened to a book on CD the whole way there and back. Even COOLER, it was a young adult book filled with sappy “omg- we kissed” and […]

The Art of Fielding Chad Harbach [xrrgroup][xrr rating=3.125/5] [xrr rating=3.25/5 imageset=grenade label=Manliness:][/xrrgroup] Consensus on a book sucks. It makes for boring conversation, a bunch of agreement, and a lot of slaps on the back. Fortunately, we’re men. So even when we agree on something we don’t communicate it well, giving us hours of […]

[xrrgroup][xrr rating=3.75/5] [xrr rating=4.25/5 imageset=grenade label=Manliness:][/xrrgroup] Are video games manly? I’m sure there are conflicting opinions, but the opinion of iUMBC is a resounding YES. I know everyone has been losing sleep over when the review to last week’s FCF, Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America is going to drop. Well, wait […]

[xrrgroup][xrr rating=2/5] [xrr rating=2/5 imageset=grenade label=Manliness:][/xrrgroup] Tinkers by Paul Harding is a short book that says a lot. What exactly it is saying though, is something of a mystery to me. And I’m supposed to be the literary one of the group. I came across it wandering through a bookstore (yes they still exist) with […]

Our book club determines our selections for a number of reasons, but the reasoning behind this selection is simple: it was considered by most to be one of the – if not THE – Best Book of 2011 (#1 by Amazon, #3 by NY Times, among others). That’s high praise. Throw in the fact that […]

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Seth Grahame-Smith [xrrgroup][xrr rating=2.75/5] [xrr rating=4.75/5 imageset=grenade label=Manliness:][/xrrgroup] Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter ended up as a battle royale between the “meatheads” and the “literary snobs”. There was wide dissension on whether on not the book is worth reading at all. On one hand it was poorly written, on the […]

[xrrgroup][xrr rating=1.75/5] [xrr rating=2.75/5 imageset=grenade label=Manliness:][/xrrgroup] Although I don’t really know how to pronounce his last name, I do know this: Chuck Palahniuk writes really strange books. His books almost always deal with some sort of marginalized individual who ends up resorting to self-destructive tendencies. His protagonists tend to have distorted and […]